Billboards Announce Severe Weather

Georgia transportation officials say they will use about 120 electronic billboards to display emergency messages about severe weather.

WXIA-TV reports that the new partnership between the state and the advertising industry is the first of its kind of the nation.

Joe Garner, a former president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia, says the program offers the ability to post alerts instantly for motorists.

His organization has voluntarily posted more than 250 public safety alerts on digital billboards, which include missing children to wanted fugitives.

Now, the group is offering a similar free service to the Georgia Department of Transportation for the weather warnings. He said details are still being worked out, but they hope to launch the system at the start of 2012.